30 On Elephantine Bones, 



ralher authoritative, " that the Incogn'itum had, certainly, 

 been a carnivorous animal." You know, Sir, that the 

 same opinion had been entertained, and given to the 

 public, by Mr. punter's brother, the celebrated Dr. 

 William Hunter*, almost twenty years before the period 

 I have mentioned. 



North-America appears to have been the favourite, 

 but not (I think) the exclusive, domain of the Mammoth. 

 The exuviee of this giant of the earth have been found 

 in almost every state of the American Union. They 

 have been discovered in the countries west of the Mis- 

 sisippi, as well as in those which are included between 

 this river and the Atlantic-Ocean. Consequently, the 

 Alleghaney-Mountains,the Blue-Ridge, and other ranges 

 of our mountains, formed but a feeble barrier against 

 his passage from the west to the east, or from the east 

 to the west. The medals of his existence remain in a 

 thousand places; and in a few years, I trust, we shall 

 be able to speak, with some degree of certainty, con- 

 cerning the extent of his geographical range through the 

 continent. At present, I do not recollect any proofs of 

 his existence in a higher latitude than 43 f. But I am 

 far from supposing, that the Mammoth ceased to exist 

 to the north of this degree. When Mr. Jefferson wrote 

 his Notes, he was unable to trace this species of elephant 



* See his Observations on the Hones, commonly supposed to be 

 Elephant's Bones, which have been found near the River Ohio, in 

 America, in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. 5 8, for the year 

 1768. 



t In the neighbour hood of Lake-Erie. 



